Gorlitz Old Town

Gorlitz grew rich on cloth and the trade road east, then stopped growing, and the result is a centre with roughly four thousand listed buildings and almost no gaps between the centuries. Late Gothic hall houses with vaulted entry passages stand beside renaissance portals, baroque fronts and a complete art nouveau department store with a glass roofed atrium. The parish church of St Peter and Paul holds the Sun organ, named for the gilded discs set among its pipework. Around the Untermarkt, arcaded merchant houses still show the hoists and through passages of a warehouse town. Film crews have used the place so often that locals mention it with a shrug.

What you actually see

• The Untermarkt - arcaded merchant houses with hall passages and hoists still in place.
• St Peter and Paul and the Sun organ - a hall church above the river with a much recorded instrument.
• The art nouveau department store - a glazed atrium and sweeping staircases, familiar from several films.
• The Holy Sepulchre - a fifteenth century group of chapels built to copy the Jerusalem originals.

When to go

April to October for open towers and long evenings on the Untermarkt. Organ recitals in the parish church run at fixed times through the warm months and are the easiest way to hear the instrument. The town stays quiet on weekdays even in summer, which is part of its appeal, and room prices remain modest all year.

Honest expectations

It is far from everywhere, and the train from Dresden eats most of a morning. Restored streets stand next to empty buildings, and the centre can feel underused in the evening. Museum hours are limited and several sites close on Mondays. Rain leaves little indoor variety once the churches are done.

Nearby

The Zittau mountains, the tower packed old town of Bautzen, and the landscape park at Bad Muskau.